McGrath ready to give 100 percent

Glenn McGrath is not holding back as he prepares for the Champions Trophy © Getty Images

What should be made of Glenn McGrath? With the ball he's all accuracy - zeroing into a good length, just outside off, moving it away, cutting it in. He plays the percentages like nobody else and if ever there's a robot that bowls seam, it better be named "Pidge". It's the reason why he's unique.

With a journalist facing him, things are different. He's gung-ho, has no qualms about making predictions and throws punches left, right and centre. Yesterday he thought Australia would clean up the Ashes 5-0; today he's "in the best form of his life". Soon he may start talking about leading Australia to the soccer World Cup.

McGrath was asked a number of questions about his fitness at Australia's pre-tournament media briefing at Delhi. Just a few minutes earlier Ricky Ponting, his captain, had spoken about "monitoring his progress" through the tournament, keeping in mind the Ashes. McGrath seemed to have no such worries.

"The way my body and everything is going at the moment, it's as good as I've ever felt," he said casually. "I've had a lay-off after my ankle injury, it's been six or seven months. It was late in my career but I've got over any niggles, strengthened up and had a good off season. I want to be in basically the best condition of my life and knock a few over, get a few more wickets. Look out for me."

But surely there's no way he's going to risk an injury before an all-important Ashes campaign? "I'll be going 100% flat out," he said. "I'd like to improve with each game. I haven't considered the Ashes or World Cup. For me it's about getting overs under the belt - the more I bowl the better I get. I want to get overs in the nets and bowl a lot of deliveries."

When asked about his bowling partners and whether they could handle the challenge of the Indian conditions, McGrath was confident again. "You look at the team we have at the moment - Brad Hogg is doing really well, Dan Cullen has a lot of talent, Brett Lee is doing great, Nathan Bracken has experience in these conditions, Mitchell Johnson is such an exciting prospect," he said. "We have every base covered. These are exciting times for us.

"My biggest strength is knowing my own game completely," he said. "The advice I give to any youngster is to know your game well - work on your weaknesses and rely on your strengths. To me it's a simple sport we tend to complicate. I think with this team we have the experience of the older guys and enthusiasm of the young guys. It's a great mix. Hopefully, in a month's time we will be flying back to Australia with the trophy under our belt."

The moment he said "hopefully" will remain one of the highlights of the media session. Just when we expected something like "we're going to win every single game by a margin of 100 runs at least", McGrath actually gave a small allowance for Australia not winning the Champions Trophy. Surely the chaos in the hall had got to him as well.

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